Posts Tagged ‘Earth Day’

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Free Environmental Science Journals for Middle Schoolers

April 22nd, 2009

Recommended Website:
The Natural Inquirer

Age Range: 10-14 (Designed for grades 6-8, but there are aspects of these journals that will appeal to a much broader age/grade range.)

Happy Earth Day! This website offers a FREE science education journal titled, “The Natural Inquirer,” in which scientists with the USDA Forest Service share their research with middle school students. Each article in every issue explains research being conducted on trees, wildlife, insects, and water.

Each issue of “The Natural Inquirer” introduces students to the scientists who conduct the environmental research and includes an article on a specific research project. The article, as explained at the website, is “written in a way that scientists write when publishing their research in journals.” Topics include:

  • Climate Change
  • Invasive Species
  • Relationship Between Carbon, Photosynthesis, and Roots of Trees
  • Urban Forests
  • Tropical Biomes
  • Rocky Mountains
  • Natural Resources
  • And more!

Each issue also contains a “Discovery FACTivity” designed to help students learn scientific vocabulary words included in the articles. There are also discussion questions designed to help students think more about research.

All of the issues are archived and available for free. You can view them online, or download and print out to use offline, or you can order the issue and have it delivered to your home. If you select the home-delivery option, you have to register and provide your mailing address.

BUT WAIT — THERE’S MORE! When you get to the site you’ll see a brief introduction, information on the latest issue of “The Natural Inquirer,” and a menu on the left side of the screen that includes:

  • View & Order Issues — This is where you can access the archived issues. It’s also the place to register if you want the “home delivery” option.
  • Education Resources — Put your cursor over this menu item to see a drop-down list that includes a glossary, games and activities, podcasts, slideshows, lesson plans and more that are themed around topics covered in various issues of “The Natural Inquirer.” This is a treasure trove of environmental learning resources!

Bookmark this one, as you’ll need to many times to explore the vast content.

P.S. Do you “tweet”? Follow me on Twitter or be my Friend on FaceBook!

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Are You The Parent of a Preschooler? You’ll Love Universal Preschool’s Learning Calendar! It’s chock-full of fun, easy activities & time-saving resources for learning with little ones all year long! Get your copy today…

DID YOU MISPLACE A ClickSchooling Review? Do you need to find an educational website — fast! Visit the ClickSchooling archives.

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FREE Earth Day Science Lessons & Activities (K-12)

April 21st, 2009

Recommended Website:
ThinkGreen.com

Age Range: 5-18 (Grades K-12)

ClickScholar Paula Bruner suggested this website that offers a wide array of lessons and activities to help students learn about recycling and the environment. Waste Management, Incorporated and Discovery Education have teamed up to create videos, puzzles, interactives, links to websites and further resources to expand the mind and protect the planet.

When you get to the site you’ll see a brief introduction and a menu divided by age range:

  • Student Resources K-5 — Learn about the “Four Rs,” energy consumption, mineral resources, fluorescent lights, and more.
  • Student Resources 6-8 — Kick your environmental awareness up a notch, and learn about food waste, paper waste, renewable and non-renewable resources, landfills, and more.
  • Student Resources 9-12 — Watch videos that teach about environmental issues worldwide. Download information on landfills, bio-reactors, gas probes, groundwater wells, scientific waste management and more.

The quality of the videos and the downloadable lessons and activities will engage your students and have them thinking green in no time at all.

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Are You The Parent of a Preschooler? You’ll Love Universal Preschool’s Learning Calendar! It’s chock-full of fun, easy activities & time-saving resources for learning with little ones all year long! Get your copy today…

DID YOU MISPLACE A ClickSchooling Review? Do you need to find an educational website — fast! Visit the ClickSchooling archives.

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Earth Day Math Activities

April 20th, 2009

Recommended Website:
PBS Teachers: Mathline – Earth Day

Age Range: 8-14 (Grades 3-9)

PBS sponsors this website that features math activities in recognition of Earth Day on Wednesday, April 22nd.

When you get to the website you’ll see a brief introduction and a menu that includes a variety of topics that contain activities designated for specific grade ranges that include:

  • What We Do Adds Up (Grade Levels: 4-6) – Use your math skills to see how small changes in individual actions can have a real impact – especially when it comes to being green. Students are provided some basic math facts about trash and asked to calculate long-range impacts on the planet.
  • A Little Recycling Goes A Long Way (Grade Levels: 5-8) – What’s better for the environment, paper or plastic? Find out how many bags equal one tree. Learn the facts about recycling. Then visit the EPA’s Recycle City for more environmental learning and fun.
  • Population Simulation with M&M’s (Grade Levels: 6-9) – This yummy math experiment uses M&M’s to create simulation models that explore population growth and decay.
  • Adventures With The Fish Pond (Grade Levels: 7-9) – Use a graphing calculator and recursive equations to learn more about population models.

You’ll also find an “Answers” on the menu along with information on “Career Connections” – find out what it’s like to be an Ecosystem Ecologist. Be sure to click on “More Career Connections” in that section to explore careers as a Chinese Herbalist, Computer Graphic Artist, Fashion Designer, Meteorologist, Mountain Biker, BMX Track Designer, and more.

Finally, be sure to click on “More Math Concepts” to find more inventive math lessons and activities for grades 3-12 that include Math In Nature, Farming and Gardening, Weather, Proving the Pythagorean Theorem, Math and the Movies, Mathematics in Asia, Sports and Mathematics, and more.

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Are You The Parent of a Preschooler? You’ll Love Universal Preschool’s Learning Calendar! It’s chock-full of fun, easy activities & time-saving resources for learning with little ones all year long! Get your copy today…

DID YOU MISPLACE A ClickSchooling Review? Do you need to find an educational website – fast! Visit the ClickSchooling archives.

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Free Language Arts Activity Packs from PBS

February 4th, 2009

Recommended Website:
PBS Teachers Activity Packs: Reading and Language Arts

Age Range: 8-18 (Grades 3-12)

My thanks to Brett Walter of Homeschool Buyer’s Coop for recommending that I review this PBS website that offers free Teacher Activity Packs on Great American authors.

Not only that, PBS packages these activity packs in a widget and gives you the code so you can place it on your social networking/media site or webpage. In other words, you can help other people easily find these resources too! Think of it as a virtual public education service. Very cool!

When you get to the site you’ll see an introduction with instructions on how to install the widget. You do NOT have to install the widget to access the activity packs. Just look for the widget on the right side of the screen. It looks like a mini-menu – and you can use it to access the Teacher Activity Packs. You’ll see that it has two tabs:

  • PBS Resources – Explore an assortment of PBS resources compiled from the programs they have offered on topics such as African-American poets and authors, the biographies and works of American masters in literature including Mark Twain, the life and legacy of poet Emily Dickinson and author Ernest Hemingway, and more.
  • PBS Activities – Here you’ll find what amounts to lesson plans with activities for learning about novelist Ralph Ellison (grades 6-12), Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Katherine Porter (grades 7-12), beloved children’s author Maurice Sendak (grades 3-5), and author of “The Great Gatsby” – F. Scott Fitzgerald (grades 6-12). Click on any one and a menu opens within the widget providing an outline of the activity along with links to resources and lesson plans that include printable materials.

But that’s not all. PBS offers widgets for many more subjects including:

  • The Arts – Art history and music
  • Health and Fitness
  • Science and Technology – oceans, earth day, forensic science and more
  • Social Studies – global populations, the presidency, and democracy around the world.

You can access them all through the main PBS Teacher PBS Teacher Activity Packs page.

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Are You The Parent of a Preschooler? You’ll Love Universal Preschool’s Learning Calendar! It’s chock-full of fun, easy activities & time-saving resources for learning with little ones all year long! Get your copy today…

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Earth Day — Take Your Math Outdoors!

April 21st, 2008

Recommended Website:
Googol Learning: Earth Day Math

Age Range: All (Math activities that the whole family can enjoy together :)

Our friend Susan Jarema at Googol Learning notified us that they have prepared some fun math activities themed around Earth Day 2008 (on April 22nd). They also offer activities in recognition of TV Turnoff Week (April 21-27). Here’s what you’ll find at the website:

Stuck in a math rut? Go take a hike! Print out a few pages from this website and bring them along. There’s plenty of mathematics to be discovered in nature. Find patterns, count, measure, do trigonometry, and much more!

On this page you will also find links to other pages on the site where you can:

  • Listen to an mp3 discussion of math concepts.
  • Explore Eco-Math — Math doesn’t need to be a dry, dusty subject. Did you
    ever stop to think about where math came from in the first place? Why, it
    came from the great outdoors! So it’s only natural to learn mathematics in
    its “natural” context. :)
  • Visit other sites that combine math and nature studies.

When you’ve finished exploring this page, here are a few more Earth Day and TV Turnoff Week sections for you to explore:

And last but not least, did you know Googol Learning also offers free streaming educational music? Learn multiplication, division, skip counting, and more! Enjoy the educational ambience in your home while you go about your daily activities, or order the CD’s for on-the-road listening. Most of these tunes are math-related, but other subjects are included as well.

Enjoy!

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FREE Earth Day Science Videos

April 10th, 2008

Recommended Website:
BrainPOP: Earth Day

Age Range: 10 – 17 (designed for middle/high school students, but younger children may enjoy aspects as well)

You may already be familiar with BrainPOP.com, which we have featured previously on ClickSchooling. It has many short, animated movie clips that teach students about science, math, social studies, language arts, health, and technology.

The movies feature the animated characters, Tim and Moby (the robot), having zany and educational conversations. Moby’s silly behavior entertains middle and high school kids, who laugh while they learn.

The catch is that while BrainPOP offers some free samples, you can only access all of the videos by paying an annual subscription fee.

HOWEVER, ClickSchooling subscriber Cie Buschle alerted me to a promotion on BrainPOP – they are offering access to an entire mini-site of FREE educational videos in celebration of Earth Day! Right now, through April 22nd, you can watch FREE videos on environmental awareness, conservation, and preservation. Learn about natural resources; recycling; the greenhouse effect and global warming; and how things like fossil fuels and pollution affect the Earth.

BrainPOP.com is geared for middle/high school students. There is a BrainPOP Junior website that offers videos for grades K-3 (about ages 5-9). However, the site for younger children does not offer a free mini-site for Earth Day. Nevertheless, you can still sample a free video there, and sign up for a free trial.

Enjoy!

DID YOU MISPLACE A ClickSchooling Review? Do you need to find an educational website – fast! Visit the ClickSchooling archives at: http://www.homefires.com/clickschool/archive.asp.

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